Why Did We Convene This Workshop?

The purpose of this online workshop was to describe and document the science content and processes related to the ocean, coasts and Great Lakes that should be included in all future science education standards at the local, state and national levels. In order to do this, we have attempted to involve a representative sample [Link to List of Participants] of teachers, scientists, informal educators, policy makers and parents committed to the idea of creating an ocean literate society. This group must come to consensus about what it means for any adult to be ocean literate. We must come to agreement about what is ocean literacy. This will naturally lead us to the big ideas or enduring understandings that people need to know about the ocean in order to be ocean literate. Then using a process somewhat akin to backwards design ( Understanding By Design , Wiggins & McTighe , ©1998), we can describe the concepts and standards that need to be taught and learned at various grade spans in order attain the enduring understandings.

It is the intention of the workshop organizers (Francesca Cava, Sarah Schoedinger , Craig Strang and Peter Tuddenham ) that this workshop will result in products that teachers, parents, administrators, scientists, informal educators and policy makers can use to influence the development of future science standards. The primary focus of this workshop is the formal K-12 educational system. However, it is our hope that these same tools and products, especially the descriptions of ocean literacy and enduring understandings, will be of use in guiding and influencing the development of educational efforts in informal and free choice learning environments.

Background and Assumptions:

Among all disciplines of science, ocean and aquatic sciences are inexplicably and idiosyncratically underrepresented in K-12 education. Concepts and topics about the ocean, coasts and Great Lakes are hardly taught in K-12 schools, and hardly appear in K-12 curriculum materials, text books, assessments or standards. This is true despite the fact that the ocean covers most of our planet, is home to most of the life on Earth, regulates our weather and climate, provides most of our oxygen, and feeds much of the human population.

Educational standards are the strategic point of leverage for bringing about significant systemic change in the content of science education. Our current educational system is defined by the goal of alignment. The content of curriculum, instruction and assessment are all derived from agreed upon standards. Therefore, if ocean sciences are not present in science standards, efforts to include ocean sciences in curriculum, texts and assessments will perpetually be marginalized and out of the mainstream. Conversely, if ocean sciences are present in the science standards of the future, they will naturally and automatically be incorporated by textbook publishers, curriculum developers and assessment specialists.

Those concerned about science education and about the future health of our ocean planet must be poised to influence the development of science standards by local educational agencies (school boards; school districts), state departments of education and professional societies and associations. In order to be effective, we must document agreed-upon science content and processes related to the ocean, coasts and Great Lakes .

In recent years, there have been a number of efforts underway to define ocean literacy, assess what the public knows about the ocean and redress the lack of ocean-related content in state and national science education standards and assessments. This workshop is one more step in that process and is intended to build upon the work of those earlier efforts.

We intend this workshop to produce consensus on a definition of ocean literacy (or several, scalable definitions) and key concepts to be taught to students in grades K-12 that support that definition of ocean literacy.

After the workshop we intend to circulate drafts of the workshop products to a much larger community for input, revision and consensus-building. We will make these products readily available on the web and through printed materials.

• Agenda
• List of Participants
• Participant Statistics/Characteristics
• Overview of Workshop Process

Public Observation:

If you would like to review the workshop activity and process the archive is still avaialble, like a transcript.. Please follow the link on the Ocean Literacy page and register for Read Only access to the workshop.

Background Presentation

Francesca Cava made a presentation for participants summarizing work towards to ocean literacy. Watch the presentation

This workshop is sponsored by the National Geographic Society's Oceans for Life Initiative and

the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

It has been endorsed by the following organizations:

American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA); Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE); National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) and The Ocean Project.